A/N: Thanks for all the reviews! Have a happy holiday :)

Joe was sick of chair lifts. Don't get him wrong, he wasn't scared or anything. Heights actually didn't bother him at all. But he was getting tired of the long waits as they made their way up to the top. Restlessness had always been a big part of Joe's personality, and although a chair lift wasn't a long car ride, it was equally fraying on his nerves. He glanced to the side and fumed at Frank's calm manner. For a ski resort as expensive as this, you'd think they'd at least be able to make the chair lifts faster, he thought with a sigh.

Finally, they reached the top and Joe gratefully slid off the chair and cleared the area for the next people coming up. According to the information they had, the saboteur had struck various machines in this area, one of many surrounding the resort. Each time the same thing happened: after shutting things down and closing up for the night, the crew and security would leave. The camera in the area would be disabled temporarily and in the morning one of the machines that operated the individual slope would be broken down in a manner that it couldn't easily be fixed.

It wasn't good for business to have to shut down the more popular runs, but the weird thing was that the targeted areas weren't the most popular. While they attracted a fair number of skiers, there were much busier ones and busier areas that would be perfect for hurting business. The fact that these types of slopes were the only ones being targeted ran a red flag in Joe's mind. Taking that into account with the disabled cameras, there was a high chance someone on the inside was involved - even the owner, or his brother, were potential suspects.

If it was a competitor like Mr. White had said, they would have targeted the busier runs. And if Mr. White or his brother were the ones responsible, why call in himself and Frank? It made no sense at the moment, but Joe was determined to work it out soon.

The first step was to get some insight into security of the area from the people who were stationed there. Joe couldn't help but notice a few of the more attractive female employees and he made a beeline for them, leaving Frank to deal with the others.

The entire job took only a little over an hour: once employees realized they were the private investigators hired to stop the sabotage, they were happy to answer their questions and Frank and Joe managed to get a pretty good layout of the security detail in the area. While it helped to have an excuse to question them, it made Frank slightly uneasy that all the staff apparently knew who they were: if it was an inside job, which seemed likely, there would be greater risk for them as they continued with their investigation.

To start, cameras were stationed around the hill - something they already knew from the case file - but during each incident they had been disabled for a short while. No one monitored the camera feed 24/7, because they'd never had this problem before. Once, they did notice a camera was out but when they got there there was no sign of anybody. The men stationed around the slopes had seen no suspicious figures. In short, no one knew what to look for in the saboteur - it could be virtually anybody, including one of the workers themselves.

The two brothers finished their interviews and headed back to the cabin to talk it over.

"So what do you think, Joe?" asked Frank, spread out over the couch in the living room.

"I dunno... Security is surprisingly low around here, especially in light of these attacks. It's kind of weird, actually," he answered.

"I agree. And then we still don't know why the saboteur decided to target those slopes, or that particular hill. It doesn't make any sense," Frank responded.

"It's still early in the day. Let's go up to the main lodge and poke around a bit more - maybe we'll uncover something new."

"Sounds like a plan."

AaA

Bess worried her bottom lip as she looked around the lobby. Where could they have gone? Though she had tried her best to find them, Bess was stumped and had made her way back into the lobby. It was true that they'd gotten a head start on her, but she didn't see them anywhere. If they had been there at all, that is. Was it really them? she wondered. Bess had been so sure it was Joe...

Admittedly, she'd only gotten a glance at best, and out of the corner of her eye at that, but the two brothers made a striking pair and she had been positive that she had seen him. Setting it aside as an overactive imagination, and seriously regretting running out on Adam, Bess decided to meet Nancy and George at the cabin instead of the lodge to fill them in. Considering the time they had left the house, they should be exhausted by now, not to mention pretty hungry.

AaA

It had been a few hours since George and Nancy had woken up to take what they had initially planned to be a quick hike, just around the trails near their cabins, and they were starting to get hungry despite their large breakfasts. Unfortunately, although seeing the body had certainly boosted their adrenaline, it had effectively removed their appetites completely and neither felt like touching the snacks George had brought along with her.

After finding the body, George and Nancy agreed that someone had to stay with the body to make sure no one had come back, and no wildlife had disturbed the area or body. Nancy chose to stay, trusting that the more athletic brunette would be able to reach the lodge faster and deliver the news. If the murderer did come back, she figured she would be able to hide easily enough behind the thick pine trees surrounding the area. Besides, there was plenty to occupy herself with at a potential crime scene.

George tried to hurry, worried that something might happen to Nancy if she was left alone for too long. In her opinion, the fear wasn't exactly unfounded - it was the first day of their vacation, and they had already found a dead body. She didn't think she could drag Nancy away from the mystery if she tried. On her way to the lodge, however, she ran into Bess.

"Ow... George?"

"Bess?"

"I thought you had a lunch date."

"Brunch, actually. And I thought you were out hiking."

"We were, but wait til you hear what we've gotten ourselves into this time. I swear, danger follows Nancy Drew everywhere. Let's get to the lodge while we talk." George said, already moving past her cousin.

"Fine by me. Where is Nance, though?" Bess asked, slightly worried, as she hurried to keep pace with her cousin. "And what's the rush? Is she okay?"

"No, Nancy's fine. Long story short, we found something in the woods," George said, not eager to relive the ordeal.

"And?" prompted Bess. "You can't just leave a story at that."

"What we found..." George let out her breath, "was a body."

Bess' blue eyes widened in shock. A body? "Whose? Did you check for ID?"

"We didn't want to disturb the crime scene, if it is one, anymore than necessary. I didn't recognize him, but I'd guess he was staying at the resort or something."

They had almost reached the main lodge and the manager's office when for the second time in 10 minutes, George walked into someone. She stumbled, catching her balance before tumbling over, and immediately apologized to the person.

"Oh, I'm so... Frank?! Frank Hardy! And Joe, too! What on earth are you two doing here?" George exclaimed.

"Bess? George? I KNEW IT!" Joe brought both girls into a tight hug. "Oh man, it's been ages since we've last seen you guys!" He grinned broadly and shoved his brother lightly. "I told you so."

"What do you mean?" asked Bess, curious.

"When we were checking in, we caught sight of some girls from the back that looked suspiciously like you three. I figured it couldn't have been anyone else, but Frank here is kind of a doubter," Joe explained, shaking his head in mock shame.

"Speaking of... where is Nance?" Frank asked, blushing slightly as Joe smiled knowingly. "And where are you two headed?"

George, sombre at the reminder of her goal, cleared her throat and explained the situation to the brothers. Trying her best to answer the questions from both brothers, the George led the others to the manager's office. While Frank, Joe, and Bess waited outside, George explained the situation to Mr. White.

"You know, I thought I was going crazy this morning, or I'd found your doppelgagner. At least I can rest assured I'm not seeing things," Bess said to Joe with a grin. "What are the chances that all of us are here at the same time again?"

"We do seem to have a habit of bumping into each other," replied Joe with an answering grin.

"So why are you guys here?" Bess asked curiously. "A new case, or a vacation?"

"We're on a case. There have been incidents of vandalism going on around the resort, although it's mainly all on the ski hills," answered Frank. He couldn't help but wish that Nancy was here now, so that he could go over their case and see what she thought of it all. They had worked together countless times before, and had always seemed to make a great team under stress. While Nancy could occasionally be as impulsive as his brother, Frank loved hearing her reason through problems with him and they always managed to help one another solve their case, sometimes even by accident. Wanting to see her has nothing to do with having a crush, Frank reasoned to himself. Her instincts are incredibly astute, that's all. Joe's way off base.

"Oh, here comes George," Bess pointed out, interrupting his thoughts. She could also see the owner and manager talking seriously to themselves through the glass windows. According to George, the police had been called and the resort's security team was currently making their way down the trail she had described. Frank and Joe couldn't resist seeing the crime scene, especially if there was any chance it was related to their own case, and they were eager to see Nancy again so they decided to go as well, lead by George. Bess, on the other hand, opted out in favour of a hot bath to try and shake off the creepy feeling that accompanied a murder.

"So what do you think?" asked Joe quietly to his brother as they trudged along the path. "There's a chance this is connected to our case, right? I mean, what are the odds that the resort is targeted by a vandal, then a body shows up?"

"I don't know," Frank replied, frowning. His brother was right. While it was possible that the incidents were unrelated, he was inclined to believe the murder was done by the same person. "The thing is, we know better than anyone that murder and sabotage are totally different crimes. Not to mention, no one has been seriously hurt by the vandalism, just inconvenienced at most. Why would he or she choose to kill someone now?"

"We're almost there," George interrupted, glancing back at them. "It's just a bit down from this side trail here."

They picked up the pace, eager to meet up with Nancy and see the body. The path was small, like George had described, and there were some jumbled footprints that probably belonged to the girls. If the body had been moved here recently, it would have come from another direction. There were no tracks that indicated anything large had been dragged through here, Frank observed, and bodies were typically too heavy to carry anywhere far anyway.

Soon, they reached the drop and made their way down to the bottom of the cliff face, following Nancy and George's previous route. The body was still there, almost fully uncovered from the snow, but Nancy was nowhere in sight. Frank switched gears - was there any evidence of a struggle or another person? If Nancy was taken, she would likely have been dragged further into the forest. A few footprints led deeper into the trees then disappeared with the lack of snow - the thick pine trees towering over their heads prevented the snow from reaching the ground. It seemed as though, unless she had been lured out, she had left of her own free will.

"Nancy?" called out George anxiously. If the murderer came back while we were gone... She shook her head, not wanting to continue down that train of thought. It was more likely she had just wandered off to investigate something or look for clues.

"Right here!" came a reply from behind some pine trees. Nancy continued speaking as she made her way back to where the body, and George, was. "Sorry, I was just trying to find out how the body got here. I don't think anyone brought it down from the trail; there aren't any marks that I could find suggesting it. There are a few broken branches over here, though, and some snow has been disturbed from the pine trees so I thought..." She made her way closer and caught sight of Frank and Joe. "Frank? Joe?" she asked, astonished. "What on earth are you two doing here?"

"Well, nice to know you're happy to see us," Frank teased.

"No, I am, just... this is a surprise," she said, moving in to hug each of them with a broad smile. "It's great to see you two again. Are you on a case right now?"

"Yeah, the owner and the manager of the resort, two brothers, called us down after finding evidence of vandalism on the ski run and around the resort. Small stuff like a minor case of food poisoning and damage to the machines running certain slopes; they decided they didn't want police running around their guests so they hired us to do some investigating. We spent the morning up there, questioning the security and staff in the area and found out that it would be easy enough to mess with the machines if you were determined to, but the damaged slopes weren't even the most popular or busy ones. We're still trying to figure out why the damage only occurred there."

"Really?" she asked, interested. "Well, it might not be relevant, but Bess thinks someone might have tampered with our heater in the cabin. We woke up cold, but no worse for the wear."

"We'll check it out, just in case. So how did you two find the body?" Joe asked, turning to George as well.

"We were doing some hiking when we came upon this path... we followed it up to the drop and were about to head back when Nancy caught a glimpse of something red. She was curious, as usual, so we ventured down and realized it was someone's boot. We would have missed it if Nance hadn't been paying attention."

"Don't worry, though," Nancy assured them, "I made sure we weren't disturbing any evidence. Unfortunately, there wasn't any - no footprints or traces of human involvement anywhere near the body. While George was gone, I finished brushing off the body to see if we could determine if it was murder or not. There was no bullet wound, but it is definitely suspicious. Other than the damage in the forest, which is too small to give us a trail, there were no tracks other than the ones making the path up here."

Frank and Joe made their way over to the body, getting a better look at the victim's face. He was a middle-aged Caucasian with short brown hair. It was easy to see his body because he wasn't wearing a coat or hat, and he looked to be an average height and slightly overweight. Traces of frostbite on his face and a lack of blood in the area suggested the cause of death was probably hypothermia, but neither brother could tell why he was out here. There were no signs of skis or a snowboard, and he didn't look like the type to go on long hikes by himself.

"While you were waiting, did you notice anything odd about the body?" Frank asked Nancy.

"You mean other than the lack of snow wear? I didn't want to move it around before the police arrived, but the fact that I could see his boot at all, even just the bottom of the sole, means he may not have been buried; for all we know the cliff and pines provided a natural barrier for the snow and the wind brought it straight here to pile up around him. It wasn't an accident, though - no one goes out in the middle of the night during winter without a coat."

"I agree. Even with a coat no one does that. The question is, why was he murdered?" Frank said thoughtfully. It doesn't add up: the murder and the sabotage are just too different from each other. Could it really just be a coincidence that this resort has two criminals running around?

Altogether, he wasn't quite sure what to make of the entire situation. One thing was for certain though - whether the body was related to his case or not, he knew Nancy wouldn't rest until she solved the mystery.

By this point, the workers from the resort and the local police from the nearby village had arrived to investigate, lead by the manager of the resort. Knowing they probably wouldn't have a chance to catch up soon, with all of the questions the authorities were sure to ask the both Nancy and George, Nancy quickly made plans with Frank and Joe to meet up at the caf for dinner and some skiing later that night. It had been a while since they had seen each other, and Nancy wanted to hear more about their adventures since then.

Frank and Joe decided to head back, knowing that whatever clues they could glean from the body had already been found. They would return later once the authorities were finished their investigation to figure out what lay on the other side of the forest.

Meanwhile, it was still a couple of hours before they planned to meet up with the girls, so Frank and Joe decided to check out the rest of the resort. The main lodge consisted of the caf, check-in desk, and rental shop, but they had seen a separate, much larger, building behind it that they knew was the hotel. Most visitors slept in the hotel, but people who rented the cabins were welcome to the same facilities offered there. Frank and Joe had been placed in the cabins only because the hotel was full at the moment, and there were no available rooms. A separate eating area was also located in this building, and Frank and Joe wanted to get the full story behind the food poisoning there.

They found the kitchen easily, but the staff was mostly gearing up to get dinner ready on time. While Joe immediately made his way to the head of staff, an attractive young woman, as usual, and began questioning her, Frank was stuck interviewing the grumpy head chef, who wanted nothing less than to be interrupted midway through starting dinner.

"Yeah, yeah, whaddya wanna know?" the cook sneered. "I don't got all day and you're taking me away from dinner preparations. You know how hard it is to prepare for hundreds of people day after day? And now this! Food poisoning! The crew at the caf won't let this go for days but the fault ain't mine, no siree!"

"My brother and I would like to know your version of the story. How did the incident of food poisoning occur, and how many in question were affected?"

"Hmph. I hope you know I wouldn't be giving you the time of the day if the boss didn't make me," he grunted. "It was potato salad during dinner, and the mayo was spoiled. Most people threw theirs out, but some people got a few bites in first. I know what you're thinking - I must have made a mistake, right? Wrong! My ingredients are freshly brought in regularly, and ain't no way I'd ever put bad mayo into a salad. You ask me, someone gotta have switched out the dish right before it was served. Only way they could've done it without me noticing."

"Is there anybody in particular that comes to mind?"

"Yeah... that smug, stuck-up kid, Jeff. He's over there, prepping the main ingredients for the soup tonight. He thinks he's so talented, job at a fancy ski resort like this, but there are years between us in talent," he snorted.

Frank decided he'd gotten enough from the chef for the moment, and thanked him for his time. He made his way to Jeff, next, and began with the same question.

"Why are you asking me?" Jeff asked, confused. "If anyone's to blame, it's the head chef. He thinks he's so great, but he's getting old. My bet is he made a mistake with one of the batches and just won't admit it. Wait a minute," he said, realization dawning on his face. "That's why you're talking to me, right? He put you up to it. Well I can assure you, if anyone messed with the mayo, it wasn't me. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to dinner."

Knowing a dismissal when he heard one, Frank decided to see if Joe had learned anything useful. If he's lying, he's one hell of an actor, Frank thought as he made his way to where his brother was waiting. I'll compare notes with Joe and see if he learned anything new.

It was just about time for their dinner with the girls, so the two made their way to the caf, briefing the other on what they had found out. For Joe's part, he'd learned that while complaints were extremely rare at the resort in both the caf and the hotel's kitchen, they weren't unprecedented. The last time an event had occurred, a trainee had mixed up the salt with the sugar and ruined the entire lunch for the day. Needless to say, he had not lasted long there.

Frank filled him in on the head chef's grudge against the younger man, Jeff, and the similar detest towards the head chef in reverse. Before they could continue their discussion, they heard their name being called and turned to see the three girls making their way towards them.

"Hey! Sorry we're late - were you waiting long?" Nancy asked them.

"No, we only just got here. We just paid a visit to the kitchen staff in the hotel to get some more details on the food poisoning and were filling each other in on what we learned," Frank explained.

"I'd love to hear what you've come up with," Nancy said as she took one of the seats across from them, shrugging out of her heavy winter coat.

"As fascinating as that sounds, I for one am kind of hungry," Bess announced. "Joe and I can get food for all of us while you discuss it."

"Fine by me. I am starved, after all," he replied with a wink. The two made their way over to the dinner counter, and as soon as they were out of earshot Joe turned to Bess.

"Nancy and Frank need to get together," he stated, his sky blue eyes twinkling. "And I aim to have it happen on this trip."

"Great minds think alike. Matchmaking is one of my specialties," she grinned deviously. "Any schemes yet?"

"You bet, starting with tonight: this morning Frank and I had to go up the chair lifts numerous times, and they are long. It's simple: we just need to make sure they get onto a lift by themselves to start things off," he explained.

"Joe Hardy, I like the way you think."

George looked on at Bess and Joe from the table and shuddered to think why their heads were bent so close in discussion. The two were sneaky enough by themselves; she couldn't imagine them as a combined force. Unfortunately, she had a sneaking suspicion it would involve Nancy and Frank's obvious infatuation with each other. Seriously, though, George thought to herself, how can two detectives be so blind?